Accidents claim the lives of three

Two young men were killed Wednesday when their van hit a Muscatine County pickup. The Iowa State Patrol says the crash happened just after 7:30 a.m. when the van ran a stop sign on Muscatine County Road F-70.

The driver of the van, 23-year-old Joshua Hontz of Atalissa, and a passenger, 18-year old Christopher Yeater of Media, Illinois, were both killed. Two county employees in the pickup were injured.

The driver, 49-year-old Randy Hopkins of Muscatine, was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Davenport. A passenger, 58-year-old David Tyler of Moscow, was airlifted to University Hospitals in Iowa City.

A Red Oak man died Wednesday when the farm vehicle he was driving rolled off a gravel road. The victim is identified as 55-year-old Ronald Ray Hawkins. The state patrol says he was hauling waste sewage in a tanker container vehicle along the East Nishnabotna River dike in Red Oak.

Hawkins lost control of the vehicle, which rolled off the roadway into a ditch. Hawkins was not wearing a seatbelt and was pronounced dead at the scene.